I'M HALF WAY THERE!!!

I can't believe it. Week five is over. I can now say that I've been here more days than I have left. And by the time this actually gets blogged, I'll have less than a month. Oh yeah. Of course, then I go to my AIT training and I'll be gone for 10 more weeks. But it won't be anything like this. For one, I'll have my cell phone. :)

Anyway, this week has been very long, hot, boring, humid, hot, tedious, hot and humid, and hot. This week has been pretty much all rifle range. Now that might sound fun to some of you. And if it was scout camp it probably would be. But here in the Army, well at least Basic Training, nothing is fun. We are on the range all day and we only get to shoot 2 or maybe, if we're lucky, 3 times. Not to mention the extra 30-40 lbs. of gear that you wear while firing. So all my life I've never really been a gun person and it shows it out here. I'm struggling with it. We did one of our practices today and I shot 24 out of 40. So technically I passed, but I'm not counting on me for sure being able to do it again. So, yes, still a little nervous.

This week was also my PT test. I did a little better than last time. My push ups and sit ups were pretty much the same. And not that I'm trying to give any excuses, but I have been a tad bit under the weather. Just throwin' that out there. I was kinda nervous about the run due to my rolling of it last week. Plus, since I did roll my ankle, I haven't run in over a week as well. Anyway, I ended up cutting off 16 seconds. I'm now down to 13:54. That means I've cut off one full minute from my first time doing it. Just in case you haven't been following, this was my thrid time running. So over all, PT is going good.

I think that'll just about do it for this week. Like I said, not a very eventful week. Oh, on good news, like three weeks ago I slammed my thumb in my locker. The good news part of that is that the nail is growiing back, it is a little deformed, but all in all it's good. Just thought I'd keep you updated. So, until next week, keep watching the skies.

PS I hate humidity. It's one of the many tools of the devil.

Oh, me? I'm still a gimp.

Sorry ya'll, this week probably won't be too exciting. It's been a boring week with not much happening. The highlights were I got to stick someone with an IV and I got stuck with one as well. I'm happy to report that I was only stuck once and I also passed on my first try. So now if any of you get dehydrated and there just happens to be an IV there, I'll be able to stick you. Lucky you.

We also got to shoot our weapons for the first time this week. The good news for all of you: If I ever get mad at you and decide to shoot you, chances are that I'll miss you. Unfortunately, if I go to war, that'll be a bad thing. We're going more next week so I'm guessing I'll do better.

Then the biggest news is that we had a road march on Thursday where we had to wear our helmet, knee and elbow pads, and about 30 lbs. of gear on my back. Sounds fun, right? So we were told that it was going to be around 3.5 -4 miles. Well, right around mile .01 of it I rolled my ankle and fell to the ground crying like a baby. Can you imagine that? I rolled my ankle, that never happens, right? Anyway, my DS just told me to get up and march or just quit and get in the gimp van. So me being my prideful self, I got up and marched all 3.49 - 3.99 miles on my crappy ankle. Of course I had to walk around the rest of the day as well. At night I was finally able to take off my boot and look at my foot. And DANG!!! It looked like I had a flippin softball in my ankle. It hurt so bad. Here it is two days latter and I'm able to kinda walk and now I have a fatty foot. It jiggles when I walk.

Anyway, that's pretty much it, not much exciting stuff going on. Hopefully it will be more exciting next week. So until then, take care. And if you ever get a free moment, feel free to write me a letter and let me know how you're doing. PEACE!

You're faking it, right?

Welcome ya'll to this week's addition. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed going through it. This past week has been very eventful. We started out by doing Land Navigation stuff. Which means they give us a map and some dots on the map, and then we find those dots with a compass and a protractor. It's really quite fun and I enjoyed doing it. That night we were supposed to sleep under the starts, but after we set up our little pup tent things, it started raining, thundering and lightning. So they had to bus us back. But since they had to bus us back at night, we still need to get back there in the morning to finish our training. So naturally we did one of our road marches. it wasn't too bad, it was only like 2-3 miles away. Anyway, this is where things get exciting. I'm sure I told many of you that one of the things I was worried about was the gas chamber, and guess what was on the agenda for that day? The GAS CHAMBER!!! So as a quick disclaimer, I don't think I can put in writing the true experience for you to understand what it is like. So if you would like to know more, just ask me when I'm home and I'll be glad to tell you. Anyway, so we get a little bit of training of it and they tell us some ways of making the pain a little easier to handle. Which was nice of them. They then told us to put on our masks, they marched us up there and they walked us in. So there are like 60 of us crammed in this room full of fog(gas) so thick I can barely see the other side. Of course the whole time this is going on we're getting yelled at. So they have about 10 or so people take off their masks and sniff in the tear gas. I wasn't in the first group, so I got to witness these people bending over in pain, looking like they're about it die. At this time I'm thinking in my head, "I wonder if this is all fake, there is no way they would put people through this." I then got instructed(meaning yelled at) to take off my mask. It was at that point I realized that it was all real. To answer my previous question, yes, there is a way they'd do this to me. So getting back to gas: First off, it burns your skin, that part wasn't too horribly bad. Second, it makes you feel like you can't breathe. While at the same time it burns your throat right down to your lungs. So whatever breath you can get, it kills you to breathe it. Also, your eyes are on fire, and any snot type substance that you once had trapped in your nasal cavities are now dripping out your nose and down your face. They only left us in there for like 30 seconds but it felt like forever. The only good thing that came from it was the knowledge that it's over and I don't have to do it again. :)

Well I guess this blog is getting kind of long and I don't know what people want to know but I think I'll end with one more quick story. This one is more of a pat on the back to myself. And I only mention it because I need some good to come from this week. About twice a week for PT we split up into ability groups. These are groups based on your 2 mile run. There is an Alpha group, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta group. Unfortunately I was slightly too slow on my first timed run that I got put into the B group. The other day we had a race between our group. It was pretty much a two mile run with some hills in there. Anyway, to make a long story short, I'm now officially the fastest person in the B group. Next time we test I should move into the A group, which means I will then be the slowest person in the fastest group. Hope ya'll enjoyed this week's updates. Just as a reminder, I would love to hear from ya. My address again is:

PFC Harding, Jared
C-Co 1/61 In Regt (2nd)
Fort Jackson, SC 29207

Guns and Grid Points

I finally got another letter from Jared, apparently he lost my address or something. Oh, Jared.


Howdy ya'll!!! Welcome to my second ever blog of me in the Army. I'm finally through processing and am officially in basic training. For the most part it's what I expected. I do PT every morning and most nights and I am getting buff, oh yeah. This past week we've been studying up on our Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) and I am now carrying around a real M-16 with actual bullets...they're really blanks, by hey, they still go boom. Plus, I don't think it's safe for these stupid children (meaning the 17 & 18 year-olds) to be holding live rounds. Also, we have been doing a lot of Land Navigation stuff and tomorrow we're going on a road march to a forested area, giving us some grid points and setting us free. Hopefully we won't get lost for too long. Then we are going to camp out under the stars. I'm pretty excited about that. Then on Tuesday we are going to go through the gas chamber. I'm kind of excited about that, due to the fact that the sooner I do it, the sooner I'm done with it. I'll make sure to give you the low down on whether I throw up or not.

So I'm sure some of you might be wondering how I'm doing. I'll explain it this way: I no longer fear hell because I've been to Basic Training. But in all fairness, as much as it sucks here, I'm getting use to it and it's kinda fun sometimes. So I think I should be able to make it for the final seven weeks. Anyway, I need to be taking off here. I hope you all enjoyed reading this. Please stay tuned for the next edition of Jared's Army Blog. PEACE!!!

Write To Me Please!

This is Angela here. I haven't gotten any new letters from Jared yet so I thought I'd share some bits of a letter he sent to my parents.


"Well, here is is Sunday again and I finally got to go to an LDS church. It was fantastic. It's amazing the feeling you get when you're in a building full of the Spirit. As soon as I walked into the building I started crying. I also got a blessing afterward. And on top of that, one of the girls in my company came with us and she wasn't a member, so after I was able to talk to her a little bit and she's going to come next week. :)

So I'm finally officially in Basic Training now and doing the "fun stuff." Two days ago we did a road march and did Victory Tower. I don't know how to describe it, but if you watch the movie Renaissance Man with Danny Devito, he does it in the movie. It was fun though. And yesterday we did our first PT test and I did good for the most part. I just need 15 more push ups to max out and my 2 mile time was 14.5 min. Now for the Glenns, I know they could do that in their sleep, but I was happy with it. I thought I was going to get like 16 to 16.5 min. Unfortunately my sit-ups are very crappy. I need ten more just to do the minimum. I know I'll get it, it just stinks that I didn't pass them."


He hasn't gotten any letters yet, but he really needs them from everyone. It's really rough right now and letters really help. Thanks for reading this blog and I hope I'll have another letter to post soon.